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B. G. LATHROP.

(No Model.)

BABY JUMPER.

Patented May 15, 1888.

N. PEERS Fholo-Lilhogmpher. wmnn wn, nv c NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN G. LATHROP, OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

BABY-JUMPER.

EiPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 882,884, dated May 15, 1888.

Application filed January 31, 1888. Serial No. 262,569.

To ctZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN G. LATHROP, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oakland, in the county of Alameda and State of California, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Baby Jumpers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates especially to babyjumpers employed for tending babies or children of a tender age, and has forits object the production of a device wherein many of the parts heretofore necessary in this class of articles may be dispensed with, safer for the child, and easier to use, as well as much more effective than those heretofore employed.

To attain this end myinvention consists, essentially,in a sling of peculiar construction for holding and sustaining the body of the child, to the four corners of which are attached straps or hands connecting with a hoop. A spiral spring connected to the ceiling or doonframe of the apartment serves to suspend the sling and hoop in such a manner that the feet of the child will just touch the door and cause the device to play up and down in an easy and pleasant manner. Bysuch a construction and use the mother orattendant is relieved of much care and the childs limbs strengthened, enabling it to walk sooner than it would naturally, and prevent any possibility ofits becoming bow-legged, and, besides, the person of the child is so tenderly and safely confined in the sling that no possible accident can happen to it.

In the accompanying drawings, that form part of this specification, Figure 1 is a perspective view. Fig. 2 is a view of the sling or suspendingbandage detached from the frame.

The sling A is made of one piece of cloth or other flexible material cut out with armpits B 13*, and with a crotch-piece terminating in a erossshaped end, 0. To theend of the body band C are attached buttons B in which the button-holes B engage when the body of the child is encompassed by this band, leaving (No model.)

armpits B B in proper place for easy motion of the arms. The crotch portion D is passed around the middle, and the cross-shaped end is buttoned over and across the front of the body-band by the buttons E, and overlaps the bodyband centrally and holds the child in a very easy position, giving it free use of its limbs without cramping.

From the four corners of the sling are attached the fiat straps FF,which connect with ametal hoop, G, formed of a tube, the diameter of the hoop being such that the suspending-straps will balance the weight in the sling. Midway between the strap attachments are connected the cords H II, four in number. These cords terminate above in a knot, I, which receives a hook at the lower end of the spiral spring J.

In practice thespringis attached tothedoor frame or ceiling of the apartment, and the child swathed and buttoned into the sling, with its feetjust touching the floor, and by its motion the sling will dance up and down with an easy and pleasing motion, and thereby the child will be securely held in a standing position and enabled to entertain itself without the least danger of accident from entanglement in the parts or from falling.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s

The combination of the sling, composed of the bodyband having armpits B B", buttons B" and E, button-holes B and the crotch-piece D, having cross'shaped end 0, formed with button-holes B to receive buttons E, the sus-. pension-straps F, the hoop G, cords H, and spring J, all arranged substantially as described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand and seal.

BENJAMIN G. LATHROP.

Witnesses:

C. W. M. SMITH, CHAS. E. KELLY. 

